A New Beginning, Same Old Story
by Skylair Hernandez
Summary: Set after book 9. Tanith has set up a normal life for herself in Dublin. She has an apartment, neighbours and her on TV set, but she misses the adventure, and she misses her friends. One-shot. For Iris Vhia.


**Iris Vhia, I promised you a one-shot in return for all of your lovely reviews. It may be late, but here it is. This is set after book 9 and all the events of the series.**

Tanith sat on the sofa in her apartment, with a cup of tea in her hand and the news playing on the TV in front of her. A celebrity was getting married, another one was pregnant, a new sports initiative was being tried in schools and it would be raining for the next few days. It was always raining. Tanith was fed up and bored of rain. In fact, Tanith was fed up and bored with most things.

Since the rise and fall of Darquesse and the war and the mass death and destruction, the magic community was quiet, or perhaps it was just quiet round her. Tanith didn't know what she had done during the time she spent bonded with a remnant, but everybody seemed to be avoiding her. She lived in an apartment block, in the heart of the city. It was always lively and she was always surrounded by people. However, she had never felt more alone.

She longed for the days when she was fighting against evil with her friends by her side, and she missed her friends. Val had disappeared after the chaos, Skulduggery kept to himself and everybody else was either dead or she didn't know where they were. She missed Val most of all, her best friend and the little sister she never had. And she missed Ghastly. She had found herself thinking a lot about him, and the regrets associated.

Tanith put her tea cup down and walked over to the window. She could see most of the city from high up in her apartment. She could see the shops, with their bright lights and shiny glass fronts, and in the distance, she could see the run down areas of Dublin. She stared into the distance, to where she knew Ghastly's shop stood, dark and dusty.

She had always liked going to Ghastly's shop. The whole place was a scintillating display of what made him who he was. It had always smelled like him. It also displayed all sides of his nature. Sewing helped him to stay calm, but he sewed magical clothes. Tanith remembered fondly the time when she had found him practicing with the punch bag he kept hung up in the back of the shop.

Tanith snatched her keys and her jacket up from the table and left the apartment. She locked the door behind her using the key and she walked slowly down the stairs, keeping to the left. As she walked through the foyer, she returned the doorman's friendly smile. Her life had become so normal, so mortal, so boring. But she had a gnawing desire for excitement and adventure.

She found her bike where she had left it. She turned the key and the engine came to life. She roared out onto the road. It was slippery with rain and sleet and covered in rush hour traffic. Tanith weaved through cars and swore at other drivers under her breath until she reached a quiet, run down part of Dublin. She pulled up outside Ghastly's shop and killed the engine.

The shop was dark and empty. The shutters had been pulled down over the windows. Tanith walked around to the side of the shop. One of the windows was slightly open. Tanith grabbed the windowsill and hauled herself up. She shoved the window open further and slid through the gap feet first.

She crouched where she had landed until her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She was in the shop, beside a rail of clothes. She straightened out of her crouch and scanned the room. The window had been open. Ghastly would never have left the shop window open. She felt the clothes beside her. They were dry. She crouched back down and inspected the wall underneath the window. It didn't smell damp, and she couldn't see any stains. The window had been opened recently.

Tanith pulled her phone from her pocket and shone it at the floor, there were no tracks in the dust, because there was no dust. Tanith frowned and quickly turned off the light. Somebody had been using the building, but as far as she could tell, they had left everything almost exactly as Ghastly had.

Tanith moved silently over to the desk in the corner of the room, keeping low out of habit. She could feel her heart pumping as adrenaline rushed through her system. She fought to remain calm. The desk was neat and unchanged. Ghastly's notebook lay beside his fountain pen and his sewing machine. Tanith slid the drawer open slowly. Inside were rolls of thread and packets of machine needles. She lifted the bottom of the drawer and pulled out a stack of papers.

She spread the papers out over the desk. There were maps of Dublin and the surrounding countryside. Someone had drawn on them with blue and red markers and written a key on the side. Tanith smiled at the familiar elegant handwriting.  
" _Blue – us, the good guys  
Red – the bad guys."  
_The grace of his handwriting was not continued within his words. Tanith smiled at her friends' notes.

She continued to sift through the papers, taking in the information. She stopped when she came to the last page. It was a photocopy of a newspaper article from two days previous. She rounded, simplistic handwriting on the notes adorning this page was different, but still familiar to Tanith. She turned the page over to find a message on the back.  
" _T,  
Look under the workbench.  
V." _

Tanith stared at the note for a moment before almost running to the adjacent workroom. She dropped to the floor in front of the workbench. There was a parcel, wrapped in brown paper, labelled with messy script. Tanith pulled it out and sat in on her lap, running her finger over Ghastly's handwriting. She untied the string and flattened out the paper, careful not to rip it. Inside were a set of clothes and a pair of boots. Tanith ran her fingers over them and felt tears prick her eyes. She smiled sadly at them.

Tanith pulled her shoes and trousers off before putting the new ones on. The trousers were just the way she liked them: tight. The boots fit like she had been wearing them for years. She pulled her jacket off and put it down beside her. She put on the rest of the new clothes. A long sleeved top and a tunic. Experimentally Tanith hit herself on the arm. The clothes her armoured. She grinned and looked around, but noticed there was no jacket. She pulled her leather jacket back on and smiled.

She got up and wandered through the door into the rest of the house. She climbed up the stairs and noticed dust on the ground. Nobody had been up these stairs in a long time. Tanith crossed the landing and went straight into the bedroom. As she opened the door she could smell stale air and dust, but there was also another smell that she recognised. Tanith lay down on Ghastly's bed and buried her face in the sheets. They stilled smelled faintly of him. She wrapped herself up in his duvet and fell into a sleep filled with sweet dreams of what could have been.

Tanith woke up with the sun streaming through the window. She sighed happily as she rolled out of bed. She smoothed down her hair and looked around the room. She started to get engrossed in looking through Ghastly's private space when she remembered the maps. Tanith made the bed and wandered back through the house, putting everything back to the way it had been when she had got there. When Tanith reached the shop she grabbed the papers from the desk and stuffed them inside her pocket. She pulled herself through the open window and shoved it shut behind her. She dropped silently onto the ground and walked back to her bike. She took one last look at the map before racing out onto the road.

 **Iris Vhia. A bit late, but your one-shot is done. A short tale, full of unanswered questions.**

 **Please feel free to review and share your thoughts.**

 **Skylair xo**


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